geospatial analysis

Geospatial analysis is the gathering, display, and manipulation of imagery, GPS, satellite
photography and historical data, described explicitly in terms of geographic coordinates or
implicitly, in terms of a street address, postal code, or forest stand identifier as they are
applied to geographic models.

Geospatial analysis originated in Canada for cataloging natural resources in the 1960s, using
the first geographic information
systems (GIS). Geographic information systems are used to predict, manage and learn about all
kinds of phenomena affecting the earth, its systems and inhabitants.

The many applications of geospatial analysis include crisis management, climate change modeling,
weather monitoring, sales analysis, human population forecasting and animal population
management.

Geospatial analyst filter out relevant from irrelevant data and apply it to conceptualize and
visualize the order hidden within the apparent disorder of geographically sorted data. Doing
so allows them to provide accurate trend analysis, modeling and predictions. However, analysts must
remain vigilant to try to avoid spatial fallacies, biases or misunderstanding effects and causal
relationships: Geospatial analysis is sometimes considered to encompass as much intuition as it
does science.

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